Publication: Human Opportunity Index - National : Equality of Children's Opportunities in Pakistan
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2012-06
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2014-04-17
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This paper complements the World Bank's recent report on poverty by providing some additional information on inequality. In contrast to reports that analyze measures of inequality of income or wealth (such as the Gini), this paper focuses on equality of opportunities of children, where opportunities refer to access to basic services and goods (access to education, health conditions and basic infrastructure) that improve the likelihood of children to maximize their human potential. It introduces a new metric to Pakistan, the Human Opportunities Index (HOI), that combines the overall coverage rate of the opportunity with a penalty for the share of access to opportunities that are distributed in an unequal fashion. The Human Opportunity Index was developed recently at the World Bank and has been estimated now for over 20 countries in Latin America and Africa.
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“Newman, John. 2012. Human Opportunity Index - National : Equality of Children's Opportunities in Pakistan. World Bank Policy Paper Series on Pakistan;no. PK 8/12. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/17883 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Human Opportunity Index - Provinces : Equality of Children's Opportunities in Pakistan(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-06)This paper complements the World Bank's recent report on poverty by providing some additional information on inequality. In contrast to reports that analyze measures of inequality of income or wealth (such as the Gini), this paper focuses on equality of opportunities of children, where opportunities refer to access to basic services and goods (access to education, health conditions and basic infrastructure) that improve the likelihood of children to maximize their human potential. It introduces a new metric to Pakistan, the Human Opportunities Index (HOI), that combines the overall coverage rate of the opportunity with a penalty for the share of access to opportunities that are distributed in an unequal fashion. The Human Opportunity Index was developed recently at the World Bank and has been estimated now for over 20 countries in Latin America and Africa.Publication Arab Republic of Egypt - Inequality of Opportunity in Access to Basic Services among Egyptian Children(Washington, DC, 2012-06)Egypt's children and youth, representing more than one-third of the country´s population and its future, face several significant challenges, as shown by higher child poverty rates and unequal access to basic services. The objective of this report is three-fold: (i) to analyze the extent of inequality of opportunity among Egyptian children; (ii) to inform government policy on how success in life is influenced by factors predetermined at birth; and (iii) to identify policies and interventions that may contribute to improving equality of opportunity. The underlying premise is that ensuring equality of opportunity entails leveling the playing field in such a way that every child, regardless of the circumstances of his/her birth, will have an equal chance to succeed in life. This report analyzes the extent of provision of equal access to basic opportunities to all children (including healthcare, education, clean water and sanitation), and identifies the main circumstances that affect it and therefore determine human development outcomes. The analysis in this report builds on the concepts and ideas developed in the World Development Report (WDR). The findings are aimed at supporting debates and discussions, within and outside the Government of Egypt, on the need to ensure equality of opportunity, to contribute to the development of policies and institutions for children and youth, and to provide an improved sense of hope and social justice for the future and help build a more equitable society in the post-Mubarak era. The report is structured as follows: section one presents the background and motivation for the study; section two deals with early risk factors and associated health and education outcomes for children; and section three presents the estimates of inequality of opportunity among children. Details about the data sources and various analyses presented are included in the annexes.Publication Inequality of Opportunity Among Egyptian Children(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-09)This paper analyzes the level and trends in inequality of opportunity among Egyptian children during the 2000s. The analysis uses severall tools, including comparison of the distributions of early risks and outcomes across circumstance groups; estimation of the human opportunity index; measurement of the relative contributions of circumstances to inequality of opportunity; and decomposition of changes in inequality of opportunity and factors driving them over time. Egypt has made significant progress in the availability of and access to basic services for children and mothers, in some cases with an overall pro-poor effect. In particular, appreciable improvements have been made in healthcare utilization before and during pregnancy and immunizations. As a result, there has been a decline in inequality of opportunity over the past decade, largely attributable to increased coverage by basic services rather than through redistributive effects. However, there are areas of persistent and emerging concerns, including postnatal care utilization, nutrition, and schooling. Nutrition indicators have deteriorated during the 2000s, affecting a quarter of children regardless of their circumstances. Wide disparities in school enrollment persist, notably at the higher levels. Large regional disparities in access to basic infrastructure exist, with Upper Egypt and the Frontier Governorates lagging the rest of the country. Family background, especially parents' education and wealth, and geographic factors are key factors affecting child development outcomes in Egypt. While interventions targeted at the less advantaged circumstance groups may offer significant potential for enhancing overall equity in postnatal care utilization and schooling, a more inclusive approach would be needed to improve child nutrition outcomes.Publication Uruguay - Equality of Opportunity : Achievements and Challenges(World Bank, 2010-10-01)The report is organized around the main achievements and challenges Uruguay faces from the perspective of expanding opportunities for children in the XXI century, a perspective that is consistent with the country's stated social welfare goals and upper middle-income status. 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Any increase in the amount of opportunities will improve the HOI despite to whom it is allocated. It is pro-vulnerable because if the coverage rate of a vulnerable group increases holding the overall coverage rate constant, the HOI also increases. Similarly, for a given expansion of available services, the HOI increases more if the extra units of services are allocated to a vulnerable group. In general the HOI ranges from 0 to 100. The three main findings that emerge from this initial monitoring exercise are: (i) Chile does well in providing fundamental basic opportunities, but not as well on more advanced indicators such as quality learning, completion of secondary on time, access to some tertiary education, as well as bundles of services for early childhood development, and youth development; (ii) inequality of opportunity in Chile operates mainly on the basis of parental education and location, and (iii) a sound monitoring system of the equitable provision of opportunities for all may help the Chilean society strengthen consensus towards equity and provide policymakers with the right incentives to design and implement better policies to address these issues.
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